Night at the Museum
Larry Daley (Ben Stiller) is a divorced father living in Brooklyn in need of immediate employment after many failed business ventures. He resents that his son Nick (Jake Cherry) wants to be a bond trader like his step-father, Don (Paul Rudd), and has given up his dream of being a professional hockey player. Larry's ex-wife, Erica (Kim Raver), feels that Larry is a bad influence on their son. After reviewing Larry's unpromising résumé, Debbie, an employment counselor (played by Stiller's real-life mother, Anne Meara), sends him to the American Museum of Natural History where there is an opening for a nighttime security guard position. Larry learns from the head security guard, Cecil Fredericks (Dick Van Dyke), that because of recent financial troubles, the museum plans to replace Cecil and two veteran guards – Gus (Mickey Rooney) and Reginald (Bill Cobbs) – with a single guard. Once Larry accepts the position, he discovers that the museum exhibits come to life at dusk, including a Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton (named Rexy) who behaves like a dog and fetches one of its own ribs; Neanderthals trying to make fire; and a gum-loving Easter Island Moai (voiced by Brad Garrett). After being chased through the museum by the Huns and their leader Attila, Larry encounters Dexter (Crystal), a fun-loving but mischievous capuchin monkey who steals Larry's museum keys and tears up his instruction manual. When Dexter bites Larry and urinates on him, he finally snaps and decides not to return the following night. In frustration, Larry attempts to break up a fight between the Ancient Roman and Wild West dioramas, led by Octavius (Steve Coogan) and Jedidiah (Owen Wilson) respectively. Larry eventually learns from Theodore Roosevelt (Robin Williams) why the museum comes to life at night. He informs Larry that, ever since an Egyptian artifact—the Golden Tablet of Pharaoh Akhmenrah—came to the museum in 1952, all of the exhibits have come to life each night. Roosevelt also warns that if any exhibits are outside of the museum at sunrise, they turn to dust. He promises to help Larry this one time to restore order to the museum. After promising Nick a tour of the museum, Larry decides to stay on as the new night guard. However, he has trouble explaining to museum director Dr. McPhee (Ricky Gervais) why some of the miniature figurines have been misplaced. Still feeling a little overwhelmed, on Cecil's advice, Larry studies history to prepare himself better. He also learns a few things from a museum docent, Rebecca Hutman (Carla Gugino), who is writing a dissertation on Sacagawea (Mizuo Peck) but does not feel she knows enough about her subject. The next night, Larry uses what he has learned to better control the exhibits – getting Rexy to chase after his rib pulled by a remote control car, giving the Neanderthals a cigarette lighter to build a fire; giving the Easter Island head a huge wad of chewing gum to appease it and keep him more quiet; tricking Dexter with a set of toy keys; and making a truce between the dioramas. Even with this new-found confidence, however, things go awry when his attempt at winning over Atilla (Patrick Galagher) with cheap magic tricks fails, the dioramas continue fighting despite their agreement with Larry, and Dexter is able to steal Larry's keys again and let out all of the animal exhibits. The Neanderthals set fire to a display that Larry is able to put out, but one turns to dust when he leaves the museum at dawn. The incident with the now-missing Neanderthal causes Dr. McPhee to fire Larry, but Larry begs for one more chance. Nick in the meanwhile overhears this conversation along with his friends. The same day Larry tells Rebecca that the exhibits come to life at night, but she believes that he is mocking her and the museum, and leaves him. Larry brings Nick to the museum to show him the exhibits, but none are alive. They investigate and catch Cecil, Gus, and Reginald in the act of stealing the tablet and other valuable objects. Like the exhibits, the guards receive enhanced vitality from the artifact; wishing to retain their health and fund their retirements, the three plan to frame Larry for the thefts, and disabled the tablet to stop the exhibits from interfering. Nick reactivates the tablet, but Cecil locks him and his father in the Egyptian room and flees with the tablet. They try to convince Theodore Roosevelt to help, but reveals that he's just an exhibit and can't help at all. Larry releases the Akhmenrah's (Rami Malek) mummy from his sarcophagus, and the pharaoh helps Larry and Nick escape by ordering the two giant statues in the room to break down the door. The three find the other exhibits fighting all over the lobby, and after getting their attention with some help from the Easter Island head, Larry convinces them to work together. Although some of the exhibits capture Gus and Reginald without difficulty, Cecil escapes by stagecoach after Jedediah, Octavius, and their men cause his van to crash. Larry, Nick, Akmenrah, Jedediah, Octavius, Attila, and Rexy pursuit him in Central Park, where they stop him and regain possession of the tablet, but Jedediah and Octavius's car crashes into a pile of snow, presembly killing them. Akmenrah uses his tablet to command the exhibits to head back to the museum. While in a taxicab, Rebecca sees the exhibits return to the museum before sunrise and realizes that Larry was telling the truth; she enters the museum, and he introduces her to Sacagawea and Jedediah and Octavius revealed to have survived the crash. Dr. McPhee fires Larry again due to the chaos during the night, but rehires him when news reports of the strange events around the museum—such as cave paintings in the museum's subway station, Tyrannnosaurus rex footprints in Central Park leading to the museum, and cavemen sightings—raise attendance. Larry, Nick, and the exhibits celebrate. As an epilogue Larry uses his invention, the snapper, to shut off his flashlight. During the credits, Gus, Reginald, and Cecil are forced to work as janitors in order to avoid going to jail.